[Adastros] Government Finances - A Better Way
Day 2,869, 14:27
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Published in United Kingdom 
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by
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by Addaway
People of the eUK, today your elected representatives have adopted one of the silliest pieces of legislation the eUK has had for a long time.
I am talking, of course, about the Draft Defence Budget Act put forward by our esteemed Country President. The premise of the bill is simple enough, to create a specialised defence budget to be used in the event of an attack. However, the key issue lies in two clauses:
”All income tax each month remaining after the cost of Mutual Protection Pacts has been excluded, (up to a maximum of 200,000cc) is to be deposited into a defence budget.”
“The Defence Budget is to only be used for Combat Orders for the eUK against an attacker.”
You may notice, that what the Act has done is to explicitly prevent the eUK Government from spending money on anything that isn’t COs or MPPs.
Edit: Just to clarify, the amount deposited into the Defence budget would be a maximum of 200k a month. My argument about this being an unneccessary statutory obligation stands- why can't congress and the CP just come to a monthly agreement about how much to save for a CO fund each month, instead of an arbitrary number?
Save for private donations, the eUK will be waving goodbye to any and all TG loans and grants, any MM fishing (when its appropriate), any spending on Q7 weapon handouts, and any other spending that isn’t CO money to be pissed up the wall.
Sure you can make an argument that the eUK doesn’t need to spend money on anything other than MPPs/COs but why not let congress make that decision on a case-by-case basis. Congress has almost total control of the eUK’s finances, but has chosen to hamstring itself on an arbritary, inflexible piece of legislation. Who knows what the eUK government will need to spend money on months down the line- maybe with our finances in better shape we will be in a position to give out a greatly expanded system of TG loans and grants to help our young player, or maybe we’ll be able to fund contests/quizzes/writing competitions. But we won’t be able to, we’ll be forced to set aside every penny of our monthly income into a big CO pot, unable to do anything else with it.
What a ludicrous state of affairs that would be. We cannot, as Congress, have a state of affairs where we do not have the ability to decide the funding levels for the government. Why handcuff ourselves to this when we have the ability to rationally set budgets already?
A Solution
I would hope that a majority of my fellow congress members can be persuaded that a better way to manage our finances can be found, and I have my own proposal to do this. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1psNNnmb8gcMzZzCHM8rQOUKz82K8eNiQpFBf9-RBLfc/edit
My Bill would establish a procedure whereby each CP will submit a budget to congress, detailing the amount of funding they need for each government department, detailing where every penny is sent. Congress would then be able to approve or reject this budget, and would have the power to negotiate with the CP if it disagreed with the budget proposed.
The procedure would be arranged it such a way as to minimise disruption to government in the case of a disputed budget, and provides for congress allocating additional money if it is required.
And if Congress really did want to plough all of its money into a big CO fund, then it would be entirely at liberty to do so- but why force this to be the case? Why can’t we allow ourselves the flexibility to decide spending at all levels of government?
If you’re a congress member and you agree with me, then PM the Speaker and say you would like to sponsor my bill. Lets get this changed.
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Sponsored.
Don't blame me I voted against
Long term I would agree we need to be budgeting for things like TG loans etc, but in the short term and foreseeable future is there anything that we should spend a single penny on other than defence of the realm?
For example with no regions the eUK brings in less than 30k per month. If we need to keep up our MPP stack (say 15) at a cost of 150k that's a net loss of 120k per month. Any long term occupation could bankrupt the eUK.
I'm not quibbling about government spending at the moment, I just think its foolish to bind ourselves to a statutory obligation to spend 200,000 a month on a CO fund- why not let congress decide how much to spend and where to spend it each month, as it finds appropriate?
But i don't think we are - any future congress will be just as entitled to repeal or amend the legislation, just as you are proposing.
In fact what we need is provision to ensure that at times of war all money is diverted to the war effort and in a period of peace we make provision for domestic improvement.
But I think a good many both in the eUK and allies are going to be concerned if money is frittered away and then a few weeks/months later we expect our allies to bail us out yet again.
So why have these arbitrary restrictions if they will be repealed anyway?
"In fact what we need is provision to ensure that at times of war all money is diverted to the war effort"
Sure. But I'm sure Congress is capable of making that decisions independently of being forced to stick 200k a month in a big pot. Congress may well want to stick all its cash in a big pot, but why force it to do so ?
A far more sensible approach than giving everything to the MoD. Happy to sponsor.
TG loans do have a return? Not long ago, people of the gov said that it was a waste...
I would like to point out that the last 72 hours that congress have had to discuss and debate this (technically 24 hours more as there was an emergency proposal) and barely anyone has discussed or talked about it.
Then AFTER it's been proposed they decide to discuss it, and not even in congress, outside of congress.
I would also like to point out that if our country is wiped, we will not get any TG loans and all that other stuff that Addaway has said anyway, when have you seen them in the past few months that we've been wiped? (The tanks for Call to Arms and money for CO's have been all personal money, other than MPPs the gov has spent not a single penny). So our main focus should be on defence so that we can have those other nice things.
And in a good situation, the UK should bring in more than 340k a month, leaving money for the extra things (the defence budget is capped to 200k a month and 140k for MPPs).
As we have seen, a UK with no form of defence fund gets wiped, we need to start building one so we can start protecting the country in the future (obviously this will more apply after the current shit storm 😃).
I agree that eUK needs more money for COs, I'm not disputing the policy idea- I'm just saying why chain ourselves to a statutory obligation to do so? Can't congress just decide how much to save for COs on a monthly basis, based on the recommendation of the CP?
/me goes to re-write his CP manifesto now he can only spend money on COs
Oi! You can't be CO, I'm CP! That's not how it works!
Rob4DecemberCP
Yes, that'll do nicely. I will have finished my term a month ago and One Metre, One Life will be doing rather well.
...
on second thoughts, Rob4CPwheneverfrixisrunning
Rob4CPthismonth (hopefully)
In view of some of the comments from people who apparently seem to be suggesting we should give people money to spend writing articles or upgrade their training grounds - where are you proposing to get this money if the UK is wiped because we can't defend ourselves?
There will be no money for TG loans if we have no regions!
What are we supposed to do if we hear that someone is about to attack eUK - send them a message and say can you hold on till next month as we've not allocated any money this month for CO's?
I suppose we could have a whip round among Congress members and extract 10k from each of them for starters?
If being in Congress paid a monthly 10k CC salary, I'd happily donate.
You could, but you wouldn't get 10k from each of them I have no idea how to make decent cash on this game
Sponsored cause it's Adastros.
If we don't use every penny we have on defense, we'll have no need for a budget. Don't forget that the world around us sees us as a tasty morsel to be devoured at will... and unless we get more active citizens and a decent military alliance, there's not a whole lot we can do about it. But let's not hand ourselves to them on the proverbial silver platter.
Reckon this administration needs a bloody good shake up.
/me shakes scarfar a bit
I'm not administration 😣
Like the idea, just have an issue with Presidential candidates making draft budgets every month. Wouldn't it be better for the newly elected President to commend their budget to the House on the 6th?
If they submit on the 6th, then it won't go to vote until the 8th and won't come into force until the 9th at the earliest. By this point we are over 10% through the CPs term and they are making budgets for the following CP.
That happens IRL
Yes, but in real life it happens every 365 days, not every 30
Knowing how dysfunctional Congress can be, I prefer to nail down a number, even if it is arbitrary. There's room on a month-to-month basis for Congress to modify the number if they feel the need. Otherwise, there's a default mechanism to force savings for COs. It can be clearly stated that Congress may vote to modify the $200K value on any given month, if desired.
" There's room on a month-to-month basis for Congress to modify the number if they feel the need."
There isn't though, Congress would have to amend the act every time it wanted to change it. It's not feasible
Okay so what about an amendment then to the Draft Defence Budget Act, to include a provision for Congress to modify the amount when required, for months when you'd rather spend on domestic programs?
Surely amending the act is exactly the same as setting a new budget every month? According to your comment above it will take 3 days to put in place a budget, if my understanding is correct, amendments take only 24 hours debate and 24 hours vote, so it would actually be quicker.
I think Hugo raises a very good point here.
Seems aight but idk how one would calculate exact numbers for everything. Is there any room for flexibility once budget has been set?
anything like this should have a clause that makes sure it is reviewed on a month by month basis, in which case you may as well let congress determine budgets each month. Given that congress are elected 10 days before new CP's, they could easily have that done by the 6th of each month
Boo!
As you said, "All income tax each month remaining after the cost of Mutual Protection Pacts has been excluded, (up to a maximum of 200,000cc) is to be deposited into a defence budget." is just very silly.
I have a few questions about this bill, this may be down to it being poorly written, or more likely, down to me misunderstanding.
"Once 75% of the given funds are used, the Country President or Minister of Defence may request a further 200,000cc." Hang-on, I'm unsure of the 200,000CC bit; earlier it states that "up to a maximum of 200,000cc" may be put in the defence budget, but now it says that the CP/MoD can have over 350,000CC in the fund? It may seem a bit picky but imo it's best to have bills as clear as possible.
"Citizens holding money from the defence budget must return all money immediately when asked." By whom? Presumably the CP/MoD, but again, it's best to make everything specific to avoid sticky situations.
"The defence budget is to be held within either the eUK Treasury or be entrusted to a trusted citizen, as defined in the Woldy’s Angels Act." Does this mean that there can be multiple trusted citizens holding defence funds?
That's probably it. Btw, don't feel put down by the criticism, I openly welcome any bills submitted to Congress, the problem is that I feel like some people are deterred from putting bills forward because of the criticism they know they'll face. This could possibly mean that the only bills submitted are good ones, but it does mean that there aren't many bills 😛
Yeah I haven't read Ad's one yet.
The maximum bit follows on from the funding for each month thus a maximum of 200k to be deposited in a month, the total amount can be more of course.
"All income tax each !! month !! remaining after the cost of Mutual Protection Pacts has been excluded, (up to a maximum of 200,000cc) is to be !! deposited !! into a defence budget."
Congress. It says above that congress must provide the CP and MoD with the funds, so it is up to them to fetch it.
Well yes. As there can be multiple trusted citizens in the Woldys act thing.
I will point out too, that every single congress member had a chance to change and update it, so it wasn't down to just me 🙂
Which is also why I don't get why addaway is complaining about it /now/, we have had 72 hours of discussion, plus he has had the access to change anything he wasn't happy with and amendment it, but instead he decides to do it now, after the bill has been passed.